The Mackinac Menace
by Magical Malady
Summary: Some stories you just won't find in books. In some places, mundane is better.


AN: This was a response to a contest prompt on HEXrpg - The objective was to recount a local legend involving an original 'monster.'

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"So you've heard of the 'Mackinac Menace'? Well lemme tell you, what you read in that silly book of yours is a load of ptooey," the elderly woman grumbled. "Take a seat, I'll tell you the story that the author only wishes he knew."

"Ya might as well, son, we ain't lettin' you out of here this late, stuck until dawn ya are." Joshua glanced sharply at the man behind the bar- he hadn't considered being stuck overnight. As he walked to the elderly woman's table, he heard someone behind him grunt something that sounded oddly like 'grateful.'

"First off, what school taught you the fancy stick-wavin'?"

"Wait, you're a Muggle?" Joshua looked around, alarmed, reaching for his book with the moving cover.

"Is that what you call us? Ain't got any magic or superpowers, but sure saved enough of you people's hineys that none seem to care all that much. Now shush, I'm bettin' it's that piggy school, Hog-summat-" he nodded slowly, "Thought so. Never shoulda let you come out this way for that sorry excuse of an animal class ya got. Right, well this is as true as it gets, what with no truthy-serum to drug me up with. This comes from my I don't know how many great granpap, he wasn't from these parts though, around before that ol' bridge even was.

"The way my pap told me when I was little was like this- there's two kinda people in the world. The regular folk like us, and the magical folk. The magical folk like to think they're better on account o' their powers, but the old 'larger you are, harder you fall' bit gets them too. We have bears and bobcats, cougars if you're really lucky. But them? They got things like dementys and and medusa-snakes and trolls. Those things will go after anything in their path, but this thing? This thing wants the magic inside of ya.

"The more north of the bridge ya get, the more danger you stick-wavers are in. See them trees outside? Hollow. All of 'em. Knock on one come daybreak, promise ya. Never in the same spot twice, them trees. See when the moon goes dark, they move. Change. Only got to see it once myself, but they took a kid that night."

"The trees?" he interrupted.

"No, the menaces. 's what we call 'em. Them trees ain't trees. Hollow trees, fake things, how they hide in the light. Natural light, though, that stick-light won't work on' em, neither will my flashlight. Would be a bit too easy, huh? Nah, light goes away and they change. Awful things. See, you can see them just fine, but can't hurt 'em none. Tried shootin' it. Threw my light. Just goes right through. But they can get you just fine. Just showed me the stories were true.

"They go after the ones with powers. Magic. Want nothin' to do with us regular folks. It's like a black shape without a shape. Can see it in the corner of your eye, but look dead on and nothin's there. If it senses even a little bit o' powers, like maybe your parents were but you aren't, it'll get ya. If you're regular enough, you're perfectly safe, usually."

"What do they do?" Joshua whispered, meeting her eyes steadily.

"Oh they sent that kid straight to Hell!"

"Wait what? They killed him!? They attacked-"

"Hold up now, I ain't said nothing about no killing. I said they sent 'im to Hell and that's what I meant. I know you ain't from these parts but there's a little city way down below the bridge, called Hell. Awful humor they got. Named the city that when terrified stick-wavers claiming to be witches and wizards kept poppin' out of nowhere, losin' their minds when their polished sticks didn't do anything. Just regular people when they pop up, but lookin' like they went through the inferno itself. Dunno who they are or where they're from, just knowin' that waving that wand is supposed to do something and panicking that it ain't."

"So... these things that you can't really see steal magic, and just... apparate these people to some city in another part of Michigan?"

"Yep. Big black thing in the corner o' your eye that doesn't seem to care for physical things much, like a mean ghost hiding in a shadow, probably been here longer even than them old Potawatomi. If you're real lucky, watch out the window, might see a tree pop off when it gets cloudy."

However, Joshua wasn't going anywhere near the windows. The last thing he wanted was to lose his magic- worse than death! Becoming a squib to something he couldn't even see, in a country he wasn't even supposed to be in... He really should have taken the job at the bookstore.


End file.
